My iPhone Home Screen September 2018

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Since last month’s Home Screen article I’ve moved 500 miles, stopped working at the Coffee Shop, and begun focusing more intently on my Podcast Network, Super Mega Corp, and this website. As such, my Home Screen has changed to accommodate this major shift in my life.

My apps are still arranged by color but due to the number of changes this month I’ve had to get a little creative with the finished product. My white row is now vertical, leaving room for four rows of three apps to complete the square. I now have a red/orange row as well as the ever present green row, purple row, and now an almost perfect blue row.

New Apps

This month features four apps either making their debut on or returning to my Home Screen.

Overcast, the incredible podcast app by Marco Arment, returns to my Home Screen, this time in it’s original and glorious orange. I had been using the stock Apple Podcasts app to familiarize myself with what most people use, and its truly a fine app, but for me Overcast is the best podcast app on the market, especially after the latest update to version five.

Making its debut, after what seemed like the longest three months since WWDC, is Shortcuts. If you are familiar with Workflow then you will know that Shortcuts is the new Apple backed replacement for it that packs an even bigger punch thanks to deeper system integration and the power of Siri.

I know, I know, Siri sucks right? Well not so much anymore. With Siri Shortcuts (the system wide ability to set recommended voice commands for tasks that you do regularly) and the Shortcuts app (which lets you dive into the deepest end of iOS automation) you can now use Siri to pull of some truly remarkable stuff. I’ll have more on this in the future but for now, if being able to turn on your TV and have it automatically switch to the input of your Apple TV simply by saying ‘Hey Siri, TV on’ appeals to you, download the Shortcuts app, check out the gallery, and start experimenting.

The next new addition to my Home Screen is Toggl, which I use for time tracking. It’s not the best iOS app out there, the web app is better in every way, but for tracking my time when I’m away from my desk it gets the job done. I use Toggl because its free and has all of the features that I want in a time tracker: projects, tags, the ability to track time live or to set it manually. It also has Shortcut integration so I can start and stop timers with my voice...the future is here.

Last and certainly least is the app for my new bank. Nothing special but it is orange and that’s fun.

Apps That Got The Boot

Five apps have been demoted to the second or third screen: YouTube, Slack, Day One, Central Bank, and Apple Podcasts. There isn’t anything wrong with these apps, in fact I highly recommend Day One and Slack, but I no longer needed them on my primary screen, where real estate is very, very expensive.

App of the month

Trello

Trello is a productivity app that focuses on boards made up of lists, with those lists being made up of cards. Each card can have a tag, attachments, due dates, notes, assigned members, and more. Trello is a great way to track processes and projects across their life span. In fact, I use Trello for the content calendars for both this website and Super Mega Corp. It’s super flexible and fits many needs. If you want a more process-oriented and visual task manager then give Trello a shot.

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If you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to say hi you can find me on Twitter.